


You Never Know

by NervousAliceCurious



Category: Original Work
Genre: A Discussion of Unicorns, Gen, rainy day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25295563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAliceCurious/pseuds/NervousAliceCurious
Summary: It's just an ordinary morning, with strangely mystical news.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	You Never Know

**Author's Note:**

> Cw: Eating, brief mention of ICE raiding.

“-You’re awfully early”, the store owner comments.

“-Hello, sir".

You look up, brushing your wayward hair out of your face.

Typhoon-like rain thunders outside.

Water drips to the floor in streams.

“What, no umbrella?”

He raises an eyebrow.

“-Don’t have the money for one, sir”.

“Huh”.

He puts away the big tub of candy.

“First folk I’ve seen without”.

“Hehe…”

You look around.

Bright lights flicker, occasionally.

Colorful food packaging glares from the shelves.

The freezers in the back are so frosted with ice, you can’t even tell what’s hidden behind them anymore.

You blink the droplets down your face.

“. . . You have any strawberries?”

“-That’s a weird food to eat right now…”

“I like them”.

You peep at the glassed-in counter.

“-Strawberries!”

“Yeah-frozen out the gate”.

Your eyes sparkle at their pink gloss.

“So pretty…!”

He shrugs.

“-They’re a dollar a dozen”.

“Oh”.

You shrink, slightly-

“-No cents even for one, measly fruit?”

His lips quirk into a tiny grin.

“Nope. . . .”

You sigh …

“-You have any free samples of anything?”

“I have cheese-“

“Ooh!”

He takes out a big, yellow tray.

“Yayyy!!”

You clap excitedly-

“-Are you a fromage fanatic or something?”

“No-I’m just hungry”.

You stab in a toothpick and eat it.

“-No more cheeses left in two hours, where is my notepad. . .”

Rummaging.

“-Oh yeah”.

He sets down a news clipping.

“Apparently someone thought they saw a group of unicorns the other day”.

“Unicorns?”

“Yeah. . .”

….You eat more cheese.

“That’d be a lucky sight-“

“Tell me about it”.

He sighs.

“You believe in ‘em, or what?”

“It’d be pretty weird if I didn’t”.

“How so?”

-You have a small mound of toothpicks, now.

“Ghosts still exist, so why not?”

“-That is a good point”.

He gets out a pen.

And a pad, just like he promised.

“Buy. . .more. . .cheese-“

He looks up-

“-?”

Half of it’s already gone-

“-Are you a mouse!?”

“No”.

You innocently reach for another savory block.

“I’m-you better hope nobody else wants cheese today”.

“-Did I beat my record?”

“You shattered it”.

He huffs.

“What have you been doing all day!?”

“Running”.

“In this downpour?”

He leans to see through the transparent doorway.

“It’s nice and cold”.

“-Seriously, don’t…get sick right now, it’s-“

“Hmm?”

“It’s not a good idea”.

He grimaces.

“. . .Okay”.

You don’t get the news network, so-

“If you met a unicorn, what would you do?”

-He seems surprised.

“Beats me…never occurred to me that they’d ever show up”.

He coughs.

“To be honest. . .don’t have much reason to believe in such things anymore…”

“How come?”

“Dad in a red suit and beard when I was five years old”.

“Ohhh dear-“

He bustles into the storage.

“They said it was gonna rain until the moon-“

“I won’t be out too long-!”

You grin.

“Just checking-“

“I know…”

You finish the last of the cheeses.

“-! You’re done already-“

He nearly drops the box he’s holding.

“Yup!”

-Luckily he manages to put it on the counter before disaster ensues.

“Geez…”

He rubs his head.

“I will never understand you teenagers...”

“It’s okay”.

You toss the toothpicks into the compost.

“I don’t know much about some stuff either, so-“

“Speaking of-“

He pulls out his old, rickety folding chair.

“You never did say where you came from…”

“Well. . .”

-He pops it into shape with a harsh CRACK.

“It’s pretty under-populated”.

“-Like that, huh?”

“Yeah”.

He sits in it.

You’re aware he hides the Funnies in the spinal pocket-

“Cool”.

Speaking of, you can kind-of see him turn to check if the supports are still holding, when really-

‘Will it be Family Circus today?’

“-I’d just be careful later this week:

They’re inspecting for undocumented immigrants”.

“Huh-“

You blink-

“Are they allowed to do that!?”

“Unannounced experiment”.

He slides the thin book deftly into his lap.

“-But I have a cousin in the Dept, so I have ‘first-hearing’ privileges”.

Silently flips a page…

“-See, this is why I doubt we actually have unicorns”.

“. . .”

‘Well. The thing about that, is….’

“I’ll be careful”.

“Good”.

You start for the door again.

“Thanks for letting me eat your food!”

“-Only do it everyday…”

You wave, and then run off into the rainfall.

It’s cold.

It is VERY cold-

You rush behind what you think is a building, but you can’t be sure because of the intensely-falling sheets.

….You don’t know how long you’re going to be able to continue getting away with this, but-

For now, you open the portal back to your world.

Your silhouette briefly shows on the red-brick:

Equine.

With a horn.

You pass through, and it’s like you were never there at all.

**Author's Note:**

> This one's been sitting in my head for a while. X) Hope you liked it!


End file.
